Sister Act 2 (1993)

Matt (00:00:21):

Hello and welcome to Load Bearing Beams, the podcast that is down with G.O.D. I forgot. Yeah. You know me. I forgot. When we did Sister Act one a year ago, we finally formally announced and came out as a Catholic

Laci (00:00:32):

Podcast.

Matt (00:00:33):

Oh, right. We’ve kind of forgotten to keep that up, but we are a Catholic podcast. Of course. We taken the Eucharist.

Jen (00:00:39):

I’m wearing the wrong shirt for this podcast.

Laci (00:00:41):

No, it’s perfect. You look just like an altar boy. I love it.

Matt (00:00:45):

Our G who shall remain nameless until she gets her formal introduction is a very bso, I suppose you would say at

Laci (00:00:51):

The moment. I’d vouch for that,

Matt (00:00:54):

But I would say that that is a very Catholic thing. Come on, go back to Italia. That’s what all the ladies are doing.

Laci (00:01:00):

Mother’s milk. Sorry.

Matt (00:01:02):

That’s what it’s all about. It’s about mother’s milk and it’s about the saints. I lost my keys. St. Francis.

Laci (00:01:09):

Help me. Okay, perfect. What are we doing here? We are covering Sister Act two, which is a, I’m

Matt (00:01:15):

Matt Stokes.

Laci (00:01:16):

Oh, I’m Laci Roth. I’m married to the cranky one.

Matt (00:01:19):

To the cranky one. You’re definitely the cranky. One of the two of us.

Laci (00:01:22):

But today,

Matt (00:01:23):

Today I’m a little cranky. Laci’s been annoying me off mic. I told them our guests seem to Laci’s just a shark calmly swimming around in a pool, and our guest took a vial of blood and just dropped it in. And you just saw steam come out of the pool. I

Laci (00:01:42):

Barely got started. This is so cursed. Okay, so

Matt (00:01:45):

Jen, our friend Jen, is with us. You last heard Jen talking to me about Best actress in the Oscar race, but this is your first real regular Degular episode. So welcome to the show, Jen. We’re delighted to have you.

Jen (00:01:55):

Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. Oh, happy day.

Laci (00:02:01):

Oh, happy day. Told you I knew she’d mirror me. Okay, Jen, why don’t you tell people who you are and how it is that we became an

Jen (00:02:11):

Item? Well, my name is Jen, and I randomly started on TikTok and YouTube because one of my friends was like, you see 8 million movies and you should post about them so I can know if I want to bother to watch them or not. So I started doing it and then one day a friend of mine was actually on load-bearing beam, so I was watching the podcast. I didn’t really know anything about it, and then I saw Laci and I was like, this person is destined to be my best friend, regardless if she even knew who I was yet, we were technically following each other, but we never talked. So I slid into her dms and was literally like, this may be weird, but I think we should be best friends. That’s what it said. I didn’t know, and we have been how I would go over, but I was right in my assumption.

Laci (00:03:02):

You were, and here we are over a year ago or year, we’ve

Jen (00:03:04):

Been inseparable ever since, or inseparable, I guess depending on who you ask.

Matt (00:03:09):

No one ever listens to the podcast and says that about me,

Laci (00:03:12):

But they should do your best

Matt (00:03:13):

Friend. I want to be Matt’s best friend.

Laci (00:03:15):

You don’t really put off best friend energy. I think people want to be grumpy with

Matt (00:03:19):

You. What’s wrong? What am I doing wrong

Laci (00:03:21):

For the way that you are? You’re doing everything right. You don’t want people to talk to you. Right? That’s not true. Oh,

Jen (00:03:27):

Here’s the difference between you and Laci and then me and Laci, is that you are very serious with your movies. So much information, and I love that about you. These are positives, by the way. I just want to clarify. No, I’m serious. But with me, I consider myself an obsessive movie watcher who’s your casual person that talks about them? Because I don’t go deep into who directed it, who wrote it. I don’t really talk about the cinematography unless something really cool stands out to me. I’m just like, this movie was great and here’s why. It made me laugh. It had great songs. So I’m more chill when it comes to my reviews, I feel. And so I reach a very casual audience more than the intense audience that the movie community is known for. So when I saw Lace being similar to my vibe, I was like, oh my gosh, there’s someone else in this community that doesn’t know who the director of a movie is. So I immediately was like, you’re like,

Laci (00:04:22):

See, you can things without knowing anything about what you’re watching. Yes.

Speaker 4 (00:04:26):

But

Laci (00:04:26):

Jen, to prove that you are the movie, obsessive that, I mean, truly, I know no one that watches as many movies as Jen. Tell the audience how many you’ve logged on letterbox this year.

Jen (00:04:36):

Oh, on letterbox. Is it okay if I look at my phone? I don’t know.

Matt (00:04:40):

Off the top. Yeah.

Jen (00:04:40):

Okay. I just wanted to

Matt (00:04:41):

Double check. No, that’s fine.

Jen (00:04:42):

Because I don’t know that off the top of my head.

Matt (00:04:44):

Well, do you average one a day or more or less?

Jen (00:04:46):

I typically average one a day if I can, but I’ve been watching a lot of new TV series this year, so I feel like I’m a smidge behind on my movies. But on my letterbox, it is this year, 138.

Matt (00:05:09):

See, that sounds like a lot. Oh, is that a lot? No. Well, I’m trying to, so we’re in April 30 days. Yeah, I think that’s like more than

Laci (00:05:18):

It’s one a day.

Matt (00:05:19):

Yeah, yeah.

Laci (00:05:21):

Would

Jen (00:05:21):

We tend to binge and watch more, but after work, sometimes I’ll watch one to calm down and maybe a TV show or something. So that’s why

Matt (00:05:28):

It’s, I can really relate to this. If I watch a TV show, I will feel guilty. I’m like, but then I can’t log a movie on my letterbox.

Laci (00:05:34):

Well, but that’s why Jen uses Q and she gets to log all of it.

Matt (00:05:38):

See, I used to be using Q, but then I stopped. It just didn’t feel the same. It felt like cheating on my wife and just didn’t get the same. And for poorer sex is what I’m saying, to be loing. My TV viewing,

Jen (00:05:50):

I use them both because I know the community, what I know the movie community prefers. So I do that because I respect the ways, but I prefer QI think it’s way more user-friendly and I love that I can document everything. And I love that it keeps track of what TV episode I’m on as well, so I don’t have to remember. And it’s a great app, honestly. I’m not trying to plug it just, I genuinely love this app, but I literally do my reviews in queue and then just copy and paste them into letterbox because that’s just what I do.

Laci (00:06:22):

Well, yeah, you’d be a fucking maniac if you did two separate reviews, but okay.

Matt (00:06:28):

Well, two different audiences. No,

Laci (00:06:30):

It’s not like one’s Facebook.

Matt (00:06:33):

I guess you specifically requested to talk about Sister Act two. Yes. Can you tell us why?

Jen (00:06:40):

Yes. So this is one of my probably all time most watched movies. It just brings me so much joy. It is one of those that just makes you smile. If I’m having a bad day, I can put on Sister Act two, and I am now singing and dancing, watching this movie. I can quote so much of this movie, not even intentionally. It just happens and it just is such a fun, uplifting time that you can’t be upset during this movie. And so Sister Act as well is one of my favorite movies. I grew up watching both of them, and so it’s a good time. And the songs are just catchy. They just get stuck in your head.

Matt (00:07:19):

Do you prefer one over the other?

Jen (00:07:22):

That’s a tough question that I knew was coming, but I ultimately think that I prefer the second over the first because first of all, joyful. Joyful at the end, just get stuck in your head. And I also realized during my rewatch that I know most of the dance, I can’t do it, but I know it. So that goes to tell me that I’ve watched Sister Act two quite a bit. So I think I like that one a little bit more.

Laci (00:07:50):

And I had the opposite experience. I thought for sure I’d seen Sister Act two just as many times as the first one. And we were watching the first one. I could quote the words the whole script, and then we put on Sister Act two last night and I was fucking flabbergasted. I’m like, I remember none of all I know, and I know Verbatim is every single time they sing, including when they’re rapping in the class. So I clearly watched it a couple times and absorbed all of the goodness of it and then didn’t revisit, but Sister Act one, I must have just, anyway. I would’ve not bet money on that. I was very surprised by it.

Jen (00:08:32):

I even grew up with the soundtrack and I listened to that all the time. When I started driving, it was in my car constantly. And so I even know the background songs that they don’t sing that are playing. So even when I was watching this on Monday night, I’m sitting here singing to the background songs while they’re talking, and I’m like, I know this movie Way too.

Matt (00:08:52):

You’re into a movie when not just the score. You’re not just listening to the score without the movie, the names of the tracks. You’re like, oh yes, this is on the Interstellar Score. This is Corn Maze

Laci (00:09:04):

Corn.

Matt (00:09:05):

This is one of my favorite songs. Corn Maze. So we did Sister Act one on the podcast last May. It was episode one 15. Everybody check out that episode.

Speaker 4 (00:09:14):

Check it.

Matt (00:09:15):

I had never seen Sister Act, never seen Sister Act Two before recently, but it was Laci’s movie and I thought it was a goddamn delight. Was not expecting to love it the way I did. Love it.

Laci (00:09:26):

Sister

Jen (00:09:26):

Act one. No, we’re talking about the first one. He hates the second one. No,

Matt (00:09:31):

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Jen, Jen, Jen walks in the sprayers. I’m sorry. I can just tell what’s happening and I’m terrified. No, I’m trying to paint a picture to everybody. Just paint a picture.

Laci (00:09:40):

We’re going to, I’m sorry.

Matt (00:09:42):

I’m sorry. We watched the movie a year ago. I did a lot of research into it and thought Whoopi Goldberg in that movie. Honestly, I don’t make an Oscar ball for every year, but I might just say she should have won Best Actress that year for that performance. That’s such a movie, star Performance, just putting a movie on her back. So wonderful in that movie. And I was like, I had no idea how good this movie was. Can’t wait till we watch Sister Act two. We held it off for a year, but here we are with a big episode with a big time guest. And Jen now, before I watched the movie, I was like, what am I going to do for the history segment? I feel like I pretty exhaustively covered Cyrac one a year ago.

Laci (00:10:22):

All the kids, there’s all the

Matt (00:10:23):

Kids. I hadn’t seen the movie yet.

Laci (00:10:25):

Well, shit,

Matt (00:10:26):

I was like, should I just rerun the thing last time? But then I watched the movie and I realized it is a very, very different movie, very different feeling movie in lots of interesting ways. And so there’s a ton here. And I didn’t know that there’s a specifically how the black community of America has really adopted this movie in a way that they didn’t for the first movie, how the movie was not very well received when it came out, but just instantly became a classic on VHS and on tv. And basically I had the exact reaction that white critics at the time seemed to have that. Now that I’m reading what the director has to say, he is like, yeah, the people who didn’t like it, they all looked a certain way. And I was like, oh, that’s what

Laci (00:11:13):

I look like.

Matt (00:11:14):

That’s exactly what I thought. Which is I feel like it’s like a Hellraiser sequel or it’s like a long running, the diehard sequels. The sequels all started as scripts unrelated to die hard. And then they’re like, Hey, we’ll take this script and we’ll put John McLean in it. And now it’s a die hard movie. And that’s how I felt about Crac too. It’s like they had a choir competition movie, and they’re like, well, can we stick nuns in it? And I feel like those two movies don’t comfortably go together. Well, I would like to see Whoopi Goldberg play a teacher with these specific kids, and I don’t need the nuns coming in every few minutes and knocking on the door and be like, we’re here too.

Laci (00:11:52):

And is what I was. I feel the exact same way. Now. I love the music in a way that Matt will never equal. I like the music, but I love it and I know it very well and it’s important to me. So that bumps it up almost an entire star in my review, which I’ll not give right now. But when Matt told me they made this movie less than a year after the first one came out, my heart stink. Cause I was like, that’s not good. That’s not a good sign. That’s way too rushed. And when Maggie

Speaker 4 (00:12:27):

Smith

Laci (00:12:28):

Smith is not in the first scene, I’m either thinking, okay, they couldn’t afford her or they are not doing this. It just already felt like the nuns were being used the wrong way. But anyway, let’s do the history and dig it. Do the thing where I talk about the entire movie before it’s time. That’s

Matt (00:12:48):

Okay. At the front we’re like, just so everybody knows, this is kind of how we’re feeling about the movie this time. Yeah, I love the first one. I’m very mixed on this second one, but I think it’s very interesting and I think that the kids are all great and Lau Hill is a superstar.

Laci (00:13:09):

Jennifer Love Hewitt, not much to do in this one.

Matt (00:13:13):

And I think it speaks really, no, but she’s there. She’s there.

Laci (00:13:17):

But she did three albums in her career and didn’t sing a lick in this fucking movie.

Matt (00:13:22):

But I don’t think it was like this girl has an incredible voice. It’s just

Laci (00:13:26):

She can get in a choir.

Matt (00:13:27):

We bought some songs for her. Now sing, go sing

Laci (00:13:29):

Them

Matt (00:13:30):

For J-J-L-H-A

Laci (00:13:34):

Bronx Girl or something, even though this is in California,

Matt (00:13:37):

In this movie, she’s credited as Jennifer Love unquote Hewitt.

Laci (00:13:41):

I guess She wasn’t very nice. Love

Matt (00:13:46):

Speaks really well to Whoopi that she allows herself to be second fiddle to the kids. She’s there, but she’s like this movie’s about the kids, whereas the first movie is all about her.

Laci (00:13:56):

That’s true.

(00:13:58):

And what I said to Matt is that I think a big dynamic shift that tonally changed it for me is when Whoopi’s playing the outsider, the one with, I mean the one who’s shaking things up and is trying to be a better person. She’s being taught too, and she’s teaching them in the first movie and in the second one, Whoopi’s already arrived. She’s confident in who she is. Yeah, she’s a little intimidated by these kids, but she doesn’t take her but a few seconds to figure out what to do with them. So there’s just less of a learning curve for her, and that gives her less to do. But if you think of it as Well, she’s letting these kids shine, then Yeah,

Jen (00:14:41):

And I can see what you’re saying, but to me, I obviously am going to feel different on almost every point you guys make today

Laci (00:14:46):

Because we know

Jen (00:14:47):

Each one of us loves this movie. But I’m okay with that because I still love you both. But I kind of feel the opposite because like you said, Whoopi did come in confident. She knows who she is. She’s done this none thing before. She knows she can pull it off. She’s not concerned. And then she gets here and these kids want nothing to do with her. They hate music. They just want to pass this easy, this Edie Birdie class, and they don’t care at all what she has to say. And so she’s trying to get to know them. And then even in a scene later, which I won’t go into because I don’t want to be like Laci, she thinks they’re vibing with her and they’re not. They’re making fun of her. So it takes her time to get there, and she grows and realizes these kids are dealing with things and I need to come at this a different way and treat them real people. So I think she does have growth and kind of takes a step down of maybe I don’t know everything and I need to treat them differently than how I assumed these people are. So I feel she has growth and she has to learn about herself and how she isn’t, as you said, the most important person in the room and needs to portray that in this movie. So I like it.

Laci (00:15:55):

But maybe what it is then is that there isn’t enough room for that story to really unfold in a natural way because they’re shoehorning in all the nuns every chance they get who I fucking love. But they’ve got nothing to do, hardly anything at all to do. They’re just delivering mundane plot, driving lines. Anyone could have delivered them. And then not only that, but they introduce a new head of a new Maggie Smith and then three delightful new fucking idiots to follow in the priests, and then also another batty in Mr. Chris. It’s just we didn’t need this many people. Well,

Matt (00:16:33):

It seems like the classic, we have to get this movie out of the door in 18 months, so it’s like first draft of the script. I also noticed this movie has three editors, which just makes me think

Laci (00:16:45):

Shit was left out.

Matt (00:16:47):

This was cobbled together. And they’re like, CRAC one was such a big hit. We need to jump on this right now.

Laci (00:16:53):

This is hot now. But they didn’t realize it’s a staying power, my man.

Matt (00:16:57):

Right? Right. Yeah. And maybe VHS wasn’t enough of a new thing for them to realize movies are going to be mainly consumed. There’s so much power to consuming a movie over and over on VHS.

Laci (00:17:09):

And I might be speaking way out of my depths here, but am I also crazy to think that they might’ve not thought a black female lead had longevity either. They couldn’t have known Whoopi Goldberg was going to stay relevant for as long as she did. They could have thought she was a jumping jack flash in the pan. You know what I’m saying?

Matt (00:17:25):

It may be,

Laci (00:17:26):

I don’t know. I just feel like she was a little bit lonely up there as a top black woman in her field. I can’t think of a ton

Matt (00:17:34):

At that time. That might have been it. They also, they got her to do it by greenlighting, a passion project of hers, a movie called Sarafina, which I’ve never seen.

Laci (00:17:44):

I haven’t seen that. I haven’t. Sarah seen it

Matt (00:17:49):

Fixed gen. It’s interesting. It’s like if I would tell you a thing that a sequel should do, I think a great idea for a sequel to do is you take a step sideways. Let’s go to a totally unexplored area of the first movie. And this movie’s like, okay, let’s go into the community and see what do nuns do when they’re not at the convent? And I think that’s a great idea.

Laci (00:18:09):

That was smart.

Matt (00:18:10):

But by not having enough time to develop the script, you’re like, well, but then what do we have all the other nuns do? That juice that we got in the first movie of the tension between Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith and Whoopi Goldberg lying to them, that’s all gone. So

Laci (00:18:26):

We have to buzz light year this, we have to reset buzz light ear to Spanish mode so that Spanish buzz light year can have the same plot points.

Matt (00:18:34):

It is a Buzz Lightyear problem. What do you do with Buzz light year in the sequels?

Laci (00:18:38):

You reset the people or you reset him. So they reset the people in this one. Yeah, different guy to lie too.

Jen (00:18:46):

And I could see where you’re coming from. The nuns really aren’t necessarily this movie. And I get it. I could still see some of the flaws even though this movie is perfect to me, so I can overlook them. But Paula confusion is just in there to be in there so the nuns can sing a song. But for someone who loves the soundtrack, I’m like, I’m happy it’s there.

Laci (00:19:06):

It’s a great fucking song. It doesn’t

Jen (00:19:08):

Make me go, why did they do that? I’m just listening to it, singing along and enjoying it, and I can look past the weirdness that they’re just all of a sudden singing a song and then they go away again. So

Laci (00:19:19):

Honestly, you just bring up a great point. That’s all they needed to do to begin with. Have Maggie Smith drive the whole thing or just one or two of the nuns, not all of them, just the two funny ones or whatever. That’s fine. And then bring all the nuns in for that song. She needs to show them what a real choir does. And that’s your way of saying, hi nuns. Okay, bye. And then you’ve got so many less people to juggle. I mean, just bring the breakout people from the first one through. Not everyone.

Matt (00:19:46):

And if it sounds like we’re harping too much on this, it’s like they are in the movie a lot.

Laci (00:19:49):

They are.

Matt (00:19:50):

But when they are, you’re like,

Laci (00:19:51):

You give them nothing to do.

Matt (00:19:53):

And you’re making me think of the first movie,

Laci (00:19:55):

Which I miss,

Matt (00:19:56):

Which I miss, but I realize a lot of people like the second movie a lot more. And it’s like that’s why there’s that tension of do you just do the first movie over again or do you try something really different?

Laci (00:20:06):

And it’s like they had something really different. They had something really special and they didn’t lean enough in. I could have done with one or two more songs from the kids. I was really surprised by how few songs there are. They live so largely in my head and there’s like three,

Matt (00:20:22):

Yeah, I want to tell everybody about the load-bearing beams. Patreon, patreon.com/ load-bearing beams, sign up for load-bearing beams, collector’s edition for bonus content. Here’s what we have this month. We’re doing M Night Sha Melons, the Happening, A fun kind of bad movie that I nevertheless like with my friend Patrick Perot, who does a Mark Wahlberg impression from that movie that I really love. That’s the main reason we’re having him on that episode. So that’ll be later in the month. This, well, let’s see. This episode right here is coming out May, no, April 24th, our episode about trac. Anyway, before that, the pilot episode of the Office we will be covering on Patreon. We will be covering with our friend Wade email, the pilot episode of the American office. And I also did a little video essay about Captain America, the Winter Soldier. So if you want those things, the only place you can get ’em is patreon.com/ load-bearing beams. Sign up $5 a month for all of that. And now let’s talk about the history of Sister Act two.

Laci (00:21:51):

I just realized that another reason why this movie might’ve really worked and done something positive for the black community is because it was Trojan hors in with it be seeming like another white women movie. So maybe without all the check-ins with the nuns, maybe your average white person doesn’t get all the way through this movie and get a better appreciation for music of that time, fashion of that time personalities. I was

Matt (00:22:18):

Wondering, I think that Sister Act One was such a big hit and Sister Act one has a black lead, but a largely white cast, and it’s of the black woman injecting some life into these stodgy old white ladies and is a big hit with white America, whatever that means. So they make the sequel and the same people will go to see it, but now it’s a much blacker movie for the sequel. And I think there is value in that. And there’s value in not saying let’s just, how about, this is not a Reck movie. Whoopi Goldberg plays a totally different character and the kids are all here, but there’s this thing where well, now that’s considered a black movie.

Laci (00:22:57):

Exactly. It

Matt (00:22:58):

Gets siloed off into its own thing.

Laci (00:23:00):

Exactly. And because they did it this way, it probably got in front of way more people.

Jen (00:23:06):

I

Laci (00:23:06):

Mean, I know it did. I know it did. And it got to ingrained more in little white kids’ lives. And I know for me, I was already into hip hop music and stuff, but this would’ve been a really validating thing to watch. I love anything with music and dancing, but most of it at this time, except for, yeah, not until Drumline was I watching all black cast movies.

Matt (00:23:31):

Sister Act One was an enormous hit, 232 million. It was the sixth biggest movie of 1992. And again, sister Act Two comes out 19 months later. They really rushed the movie into production.

Laci (00:23:42):

Irish twins,

Matt (00:23:43):

Whoopi Goldberg San in,

Laci (00:23:46):

Which is what I call Jen’s Boobs. Sorry, still on. Go on.

Matt (00:23:50):

Whoopi Goldberg has this quote, 2017. She said quote, I think Disney was kind of shocked that the movie blew up and did as well as it did. And they were like, okay, we’re going to do another one. For me, I feel like it was great, but it wasn’t as spectacular as it might’ve been. But then again, I wouldn’t have gotten to play with all these wonderful actors. So you never know. But I think it’s fun. I think people like One and two, because they’re kind of the same film, but very different. The first movie was directed by Emil Arduino who had also directed Dirty Dancing Laci’s favorite movie.

Laci (00:24:18):

I didn’t mean to have my Perfect Cup right now. Excuse me. Right

Matt (00:24:22):

Now, there are a lot of retrospectives on this movie. There’s essays about this movie. There’s like, where are the cast now? We catch up with the cast. There’s not a lot of information about the production itself, so I couldn’t find why wasn’t Emil Arduino brought back, the other key person from the first movie was Paul Rudnick, the screenwriter, who’s the guy who started it all, had this idea for a woman hiding from the mob going undercover as a nun, riding a much darker and sexier screenplay. And he was really disappointed with what Disney did. It’s Disney Disney find,

Jen (00:24:55):

Right? What’d you think they were going to do?

Matt (00:24:58):

Yeah, so both of them not brought back. In fact, Emil Arduino died of AIDS a few weeks before Cis Track Two comes out. It is interesting. The two primary creative voices of the first movie were both gay men who were replaced for the sequel.

Laci (00:25:14):

Oh

Matt (00:25:14):

Yeah.

Laci (00:25:15):

I wasn’t connecting the dots. Now

Matt (00:25:17):

You’ve done

Laci (00:25:17):

That. Yeah,

Matt (00:25:19):

But the director, they get, I did a double take when I saw that Bill Duke directed this Bill Duke, both one of the greatest character actors of all time, bill Duke, the big imposing guy from Predator, from Commando Menace to Society, a million TV shows. But he’s also one of the most important black directors of the eighties and nineties with movies like The Killing Floor, A Rage in Harlem and Deep Cover and Deep Cover. I started watching Deep Cover last night and it’s amazing. But Bill Duke is just, was him himself trying to break out of like, I’m a black director who makes black movies for black people, and the nineties was the heyday of what they called the Hood Picture Movies like Boys in the Hood and Poetic Justice, and then sort of the parodies or the responses to that like Friday and Don’t Be a

Laci (00:26:12):

Venal Drinker Juice and the drinking juice in the Yes. Did you look up Dangerous Minds to see when that came out?

Matt (00:26:17):

I did not.

Laci (00:26:18):

Do you know Jen off the top of your head, the Michelle Pfeifer movie where it’s a more serious version of Let me get to the you’ve. Alright, y’all talk amongst yourselves.

Matt (00:26:27):

So Bill Duke is brought on to direct this movie. There is a 2022 profile of Bill Duke from Indie Wire, and I’m going to read from it here. Instead of using the cachet he earned by directing deep cover to ride the wave of visceral urban films and enjoy the further acclaim that probably would’ve followed Duke pivoted in a very different direction by taking on a Jewish comedy in the Cemetery Club, adapted from the same titled stage play the film stars, Ellen Burston, Olympia Dukakis, Diane Ladd, and Danny Aiello as widowed spouses who form a bond through loss, heartache and late blooming love Laci. That sounds like a you movie. You ever seen

Laci (00:27:02):

This? I’m going to watch it. It sounds totally like my shit.

Matt (00:27:05):

Its humor is deeply Jewish, very catty, and unlike anything you’d expect from a black director. During the 1990s, duke consciously took the project to break out of the box felt by other African-American filmmakers. In fact, when shooting wrapped in the press tour began, the director found himself bombarded with questions asking why he a black man took on a white centered film. When Duke would bring up Spielberg directing the Color Purple, those same writers would simply reply, that’s different.

Laci (00:27:28):

How,

Matt (00:27:29):

What’s most painful for these filmmakers is how unconsciously such microaggressions emerge. I used to think it was intentional, duke said, but it’s programmed. They’re not trying to insult you or anything, but that’s how they feel. While Sister Act Two has developed cult status as a family favorite, the critical rejection of it and what it says about white critics’ ability to accept black films not set against the backdrop of trauma still looms large. I quote from Bill Duke, I think a black director doing something of this magnitude was not necessarily acceptable in those days. In those days, I was never going to get the same respect the original got. So I had no idea that in the industry and sort of in the critical arena, there was this idea of the divide, the sort of racial divide, even in terms of who directed it from these two movies. So there was way more meat on this bone to the making of this movie and the reception of this movie than I knew about. And so it

Laci (00:28:24):

Seems kind of hefty for Disney, honestly, for Disney to even be a part of the conversation

Matt (00:28:30):

With almost certainly not knowing it.

Laci (00:28:32):

Right?

Matt (00:28:33):

Yeah.

(00:28:35):

And the movie was a relative disappointment. It earned only $58 million compared to 232 for the first, and the critics were very dismissive. And so Bill Duke said of the critics, the reviewers at that time could not really be linked to our communities or the message as the faces of the reviewers were very different of the reviewers were very different than the viewers. So I was surprised, but not shocked because they didn’t get it at the time. They didn’t get the message and did not relate on an emotional level end quote. And I bring that quote up because I watched this movie and I did not respond to it the way I responded to the first film. And it’s interesting to then see a great black director like Bill Duke saying of critics stodgy white critics from the 1990s who had the exact same reaction I had, which made me feel great about myself.

Jen (00:29:22):

What I think is interesting is I was a young child watching this movie, and until we’re having this conversation now, I didn’t know any of this, right? I didn’t know about the history or the, which is why I’m actually really excited we’re doing this. I just immediately loved this movie. My parents both loved this movie. My brother loved this movie I up in a family that would always just randomly burst out in song. So when people say, that doesn’t happen in real life, I’m like, you have not met my family. And so anytime a musical came out, we were excited. So I never looked at this as a wider black musical. I just was in love with this movie from the get-go and knew that this was going to be in my life forever from a little early age. Like I said, even now, I watched it the other day and it made me just as happy as the first time I watched this movie. And so I never even knew that there was all this turmoil around it. To me, it’s a fantastic, wonderful movie that I have no idea why people wouldn’t like it. So

(00:30:16):

It’s crazy.

Matt (00:30:17):

It certainly, it’s like it being a movie. It’s not a movie about race at all. It just happens to have a largely black cast, which was in Hollywood, not a thing. Or if it was a thing, it’s like, that’s a specialty movie that’s for, that’s a movie intended for a niche audience.

Laci (00:30:34):

Well, and what he said, the director said, which is that a largely black cast with a background that it’s not centered around trauma. That’s what we weren’t used to, is just black people just day in the life of, well, if they’re not going to be a device for why we’re even making the movie, then what are they here for? We got white people that could do that, right?

Matt (00:31:00):

I mean, it’s still black filmmakers will say it’s still a thing. The black movies,

Laci (00:31:06):

It was like a ratio

Matt (00:31:07):

That get awards attention are almost always historical

Laci (00:31:10):

Movies.

Matt (00:31:11):

When Moonlight won best picture in 2016, it was very refreshing. It’s like, oh, that’s a movie directed by a black person with a black cast, largely black cast. That is not about historical trauma. It’s just about people living their lives. That’s why it was refreshing. So just to spot one specific thing in the movie, Lauryn Hill, and I think Lauryn Hill, who wasn’t a superstar yet when the movie came out, but she becomes a superstar a few years later. And I think that that certainly helps the movie and its popularity and its legacy as well. There’s the scene with her and her mom and her mom, and she’s like, oh, I’m joined the choir. And her mom’s like, no, don’t join the choir. And we watched this scene and I was just laughing. I was like, this is insane. I expected her to say, don’t what happened to your father. He was eaten by a choir. He

Laci (00:32:03):

Died from the choir. But it’s actually more similar than you think to that. That is a common concern of Well, that’s what we read of black parents.

Matt (00:32:17):

Thanks, Laci.

Laci (00:32:20):

That was a segue. Cut my part out and you just go into yours.

Matt (00:32:25):

Yeah, I thought this was the most ridiculous scene in the movie. Why is she reacting so hard to her daughter joining a choir? It’s like, don’t you know how we feel about choirs? So there’s this 2023 essay in the Los Angeles review of books by Brandon Tensley about this scene. This moving scene sensitively captures the conflict between a black parent and her child as they negotiate risk and opportunity. Rita simply wants to nourish her vocal abilities, but Florence is ferociously protective. She doesn’t want her daughter to meet the same fate as her husband who died broke chasing his musical ambitions. Florence scratches out a living as a hairdresser and is intimately familiar with the precarity that tends to hover like an apparition over black families. She’s determined to give Rita some measure of security. But when Sister Act two debuted 30 years ago this month, critics white critics mostly weren’t thrilled with the relationship.

(00:33:14):

Variety said that because of the mother-daughter subplot, the action gets bogged down. Roger Ebert Limited. That hill is an example of talent gone to waste dissatisfaction extended to the entire film, which the Washington Post dismissed as shamelessly contrived pap. Anyway, that scene meaning something different to white and black audiences was interesting. It definitely looked ridiculous to me. But I guess without having sort of the shorthand of this idea that it’s scary if you are a black parent who’s trying so hard to get your kids to a work hard and the meritocracy will reward you, any distractions from that, you have to nip in the bud right away. And so if you sort of have that as a shorthand, it doesn’t seem ridiculous or a huge reaction for the mom to do that.

Laci (00:34:07):

Well, and this is another example of this is not a plot I think should go away. It is one that is underdeveloped. And so I just feel like you lose a couple of scenes with the nuns and you’ve got more time to build in what this narrative is trying to do. I mean, it just seems heavy handed because you get just a tiny bit of it and then all of a sudden it’s, what the fuck is this choir shit? It feels abrupt,

Matt (00:34:30):

Right?

Jen (00:34:33):

Oh, sorry, Matt, go. I think that it’s in there because it kind of shows she has this love for music and she just wants to sing, but she also wants to respect her mom. So it’s this fine line. She wants to walk, and then she finally realizes, oh, this isn’t, I can’t always live my life for my mom, and I need to do what I want to do, and I can prove to her that I can do this. And so again, I guess this naive child watching it, it didn’t feel out of place for me, which is so, it’s so fun talking to as a child,

Laci (00:35:02):

I didn’t feel out of place to me either. But even an adult watching,

Jen (00:35:06):

Even rewatching it though, I think because I still have the memories of watching it all my life, it still doesn’t feel out of place to me. And it’s weird because I’m just makes sense. Her husband was a failure and she doesn’t want her daughter to be a failure. I get that. So it was never something that stuck out to me is, this is kind of weird how it’s just shoved in here, because I was like, it’s kind of like the side plot that drives her to what she ultimately wants to do. So it’s really interesting how can watch the same exact movie and get two completely different things from it.

Matt (00:35:40):

It’s not that I felt it was out of place. It’s that like, whoa, she suddenly seems like a cartoon villain to be like, well, in this house, Laci said, it’s like the movie Coco in this house. We hate music.

Laci (00:35:51):

We do not have guitars. We were killed by guitars. Yes, it feels very Disney. It just felt a little bit well underdeveloped and they didn’t have enough time to work. This mom who’s very good, they don’t have enough time to weave her in. They just have her yelling from the top of their house, her daughter’s full name to get in here and do your homework or whatever. And it’s, that’s the only fucking scene we have until it’s, I told you never to bring music into this house. Right?

Matt (00:36:21):

But there’s only in reading these essays that I realized two certain types of two certain black people that maybe I didn’t need more scenes with her. I know this type of person, I’ve known this type of person, or maybe I am this type

Laci (00:36:37):

Of

Matt (00:36:37):

Person. And that’s just what’s so interesting is to find these things out about movies. And like Jen says, two people responding completely differently to the exact same thing just because they’re bringing their own experiences, what they’re

Laci (00:36:50):

Watching. What aggravated me was that there was so much potential with this movie to be great, that I feel like it was rushed. I feel like what will be Goldberg said is hidden on the, they had the magic, but they rushed it coming out. If they had just spent a little more time on the writing, everything the kids get to do and say works for me, Whoopi almost entirely works for me. It’s all the interjection nun parts. Those were the rush parts. And I feel like it did the entire thing disservice. Not that the movie shouldn’t have been made, but that it was disrespected in the way it was made is what bums me out.

Jen (00:37:26):

And I think it’s interesting that you say it feels very Disney disneyfied, I guess I’ll say, because I was someone that grew up watching Disney movies and I watched a lot of them. And so I guess for me, my brain was already used to the disneyfication of movies,

Laci (00:37:41):

The formula.

Jen (00:37:41):

And so it didn’t seem weird to me because some of the movies I grew up watching are older Disney movies way before my time that my mom grew up loving. So then I watched those and so the formula works for them, and that’s what I’m used to. So to me, I was like, this movie’s perfect. I love it. Because to me it was,

Laci (00:38:02):

I just feel like there’s so much talent and so much work put into certain parts of it that it could have transcended a little bit more and done even more for the community to did stuff for. But anyway, that’s not for me to decide. So it

Matt (00:38:16):

Did what it meant. No, and it’s a beloved movie and reading all these articles from people who love it. They know all the kids intimately. They know the names of all the kids. And me only having watched the movie once, I was like, I know Lauryn Hill. I don’t even know the character’s name. And I know the guy who can sing the high pitched note. Yeah, I know it’s Rita and Amal can sing the high pitched note. But if you watch a movie movie over and over and over again, you suddenly know all these details. And if so, it all makes sense. And you can’t say like, anyway.

Laci (00:38:50):

Well, that’s the whole point of the podcast, right? Is that the distance or not having it be one of your beams is the way to get a more open, I don’t know that it’s a more open, honest look, but it’s an unbiased look, I guess. Yeah, right. Alright,

Matt (00:39:42):

So the movie itself opens in Las Vegas. I would’ve bet anything that the onscreen title of this movie is not Sister Act two, but No Sister Act two. Back in the Habit is the onscreen title Las Vegas. We are, and Dolores is a star,

Laci (00:39:59):

Hal, we don’t know what the fuck. All she did was she was in a fricking witness protection blast her into the fricking ecosphere.

Matt (00:40:07):

And what happened to Harvey Tel at the end of the first movie? Is he dead?

Laci (00:40:10):

I don’t know. But he’s in Reno baby, and this is, do you remember? No, he was held off to the slammer. I feel like him dying would’ve been a little too severe.

Matt (00:40:19):

Well then, okay, if he’s alive, I think the movie missed a big opportunity. I feel like Dolores should have gone to visit him in prison like Hannibal Lecter.

Laci (00:40:26):

Oh yes.

Matt (00:40:27):

For advice.

Laci (00:40:28):

Or he could have added an element of like, oh, I got to do this before I die. There you go.

Matt (00:40:33):

That’s the other

Laci (00:40:34):

Thing. There you go.

Matt (00:40:35):

I feel like the first movie has a little bit of menace to

Laci (00:40:38):

It.

Matt (00:40:38):

It does kind of start as a crime movie that then stumbles into a funny nun movie. Whereas this movie is always just like, oh, it’s just a sweet

Laci (00:40:47):

Movie. I’ve never thought of Whoopi Goldberg as having a stacked ass body, but I forgot until I saw this opening scene of her, damn, she’s a brick house

Matt (00:40:58):

And a series of hunks comes out to woo her.

Jen (00:41:00):

It’s funny that you’re like, how did she get famous? And in my mind, I’m like, well, it’s obvious because at the end of Sister Act, when you’re watching the credits roll, they’re showing all of these albums she put out where they were gold records, and she’s on all these magazine covers and she’s this huge, massive star because

Laci (00:41:16):

They all, but why?

Jen (00:41:17):

Because everyone fell in love with her as fixing this. The

Laci (00:41:21):

Pope does not have that kind of fricking sway. But wait, is she a recording artist

Matt (00:41:25):

Or what is she

Jen (00:41:26):

Right? She just covers, yeah, she became a recording artist of covers. Well, I mean, we dunno what happened in those 19 months. Maybe she put out some of her own songs.

Laci (00:41:34):

Fine.

Jen (00:41:36):

This is where your imagination goes, Laci.

Laci (00:41:39):

I know. I know, I know.

Jen (00:41:41):

But to me, it never even registered. Why is she doing this now? Why do people care about her in Vegas?

Laci (00:41:46):

Oh, I wouldn’t have either as a kid because,

Jen (00:41:48):

But even now, I didn’t think of it like, well, Doug need a sister act. She was in all these magazine covers and she was a huge star and people wanted to see her. And not to mention sometimes, I don’t dunno, half the people that are at Vegas, but they’re famous. So there’s people that niche is there for that want to see her. They want to see her flying around a nun.

Laci (00:42:06):

And I would go to that show, but I think it’s more cruise ship quality than it is Vegas Strip, which love I know you do and I do too, but not Vegas,

Matt (00:42:15):

But like a Vegas residency. That’s like a late career. That’s Celine Dion.

Laci (00:42:20):

That’s Celine Dion. That’s right. Fifties. Yes. That’s Cher

Matt (00:42:23):

Katie. Also, it seems like this is at a lesser Vegas casino.

Laci (00:42:26):

Yes. This is a smaller venue. You’re right off the

Matt (00:42:28):

Strip. This show she’s doing is her story from the first movie, which I didn’t notice the first time around, but she’s seen. And then I ran away from Harvey Kittel, and then I was, nun starts flying around. So yeah, some three nuns show up. We got Mary Patrick, we married, we all, the Stewart, Patrick Stewart, Mary Robert and Mary Lazarus.

Laci (00:42:50):

Lazarus. I love that.

Matt (00:42:52):

Our three favorite nuns from the last movie. And they show up and they’re like, we’re, heres Stern. We need your help. Okay, here’s what this movie’s going to be about. So you know how we had our convent, right? You helped to save that Good

Laci (00:43:06):

Check.

Matt (00:43:06):

We decided we will also work at a school, an unrelated school, St. Francis,

Laci (00:43:11):

Not unrelated, it’s the one that she went to as a child.

Matt (00:43:14):

And she’s like, ah, I went to St. Francis. They need

Laci (00:43:16):

Good

Matt (00:43:16):

Teachers like you. And they’re like, well funny. You should mention that. Will you please take a van ride all the way to San Francisco? And she’s like Absolutely no

Laci (00:43:25):

Questions asked. Unrelated, right? I owe everything to you guys

Matt (00:43:29):

And drives back to San Francisco. They give Maggie Smith like a movie star entrance and listen, both these women are delightful

Laci (00:43:37):

Together. They’re powerhouse.

Matt (00:43:39):

They carry the first movie. Too bad the magic isn’t here again this time, but that’s all right.

Laci (00:43:43):

I know it’s built up as it’s going to be this really touching thing and it kind of works for me. I love them from the first, but I can feel what you’re trying to do. To me. Disney,

Matt (00:43:53):

I don’t like it. And Maggie Smith is like,

Laci (00:43:55):

Well, oh, okay, let me get to the bottom chase line

Matt (00:43:58):

Punch. Will you abandon your life and be a teacher for us? And she’s like, I teacher her. And she’s like, yeah,

Laci (00:44:03):

Guilt. Guilt. Okay, I’ll do it.

Matt (00:44:06):

You are the perfect example of how a sow’s ear can be turned into a silk purse.

Laci (00:44:11):

God, how I would’ve put it.

Matt (00:44:12):

And she’s like, yeah, okay. Okay, listen, this is all, we’re in minute seven of the movie. And the movies already like, okay, she’s dropped her entire life. She’s a nun again.

Laci (00:44:22):

Got it.

Matt (00:44:24):

I admire the movie for Do it for

Laci (00:44:26):

Life. Right? Matt’s like shoehorn that

Matt (00:44:29):

We have to get all this out of the way. Let’s get it over and done with fast. She’s back at the nunnery. Why don’t even worry about

Laci (00:44:36):

It? Don’t even, and it’s a different set. It’s a more elaborate Harry Potter like nunnery

Matt (00:44:42):

At a school now a skill.

Laci (00:44:44):

Skill.

Matt (00:44:44):

And the first movie was not a school, right? No.

Laci (00:44:46):

Right. But this one’s oppressive in a schoollike way.

Matt (00:44:50):

So can you, Laci, help me understand who all these gentlemen are?

Laci (00:44:53):

Okay, so at first I’m like, oh, here’s a meeting of the teachers. I’m like, that’s not enough teachers. I’ll agree with you there. Yes. What is this gathering? I agree with that. It’s our three favorite nuns in addition to Mary Clarence. And then you’ve got our two goofy guys who were going to love the rest of the time that one of ’em looks like a Kmart, Billy Bob Thornton. The other one is the goofiest little guy you ever did meet. And they’re both priests

Matt (00:45:17):

Who you might recognize as Mr. Noodles from Elmo’s World.

Laci (00:45:19):

That’s who it’s, he’s such a noodle. Oh, so the stern one is teaches Latin. It’s very boring. The other one teaches goofy guy stuff. I don’t know. And then you’ve got the head of the school. I want to say Cornelius, I

Matt (00:45:34):

Don’t know. Well, father Maurice is the principal and then James Coburn plays Mr. Crisp. Who’s the administrator or

Laci (00:45:40):

The, there you go. There’s the biggest sin of the whole movie is Mr. Crisp number one weird fucking name. Why do you want me to all hung up on this name and why do we need him? He’s just another guy we spend way too much time with. He doesn’t matter. I understand what he does, but he barely does it, man. He’s just creepy. To me, it seems like Dolores used to be a sex worker and he used to be a John, and the whole time he’s trying to figure out where do I know this lady from? Did I fuck her? That’s where I think it’s going. And it does not satisfyingly get there. If you’re going to do that, I want it to pay off. You didn’t

Matt (00:46:13):

Think he fucked her, Jen? No. You didn’t think that Jan, that’s Chris got his crispy dick up in there. We were all thinking that, please, we saw this Disney movie, this PG Disney family film, and we’re like, he’s a John, right? This

Laci (00:46:24):

Is about a sex trade. No wonder

Jen (00:46:28):

You didn’t like this movie. You were watching a completely different movie.

Laci (00:46:32):

I was just expecting other things. I’m saying if you’re not going to pay off Mr. Crisp, get your crispy Hass out of here.

Matt (00:46:37):

No. And it’s one of those sequel things like why are we introducing so many new characters? But they’ve extinguished the tension. The engine of the first movie was the tension between Wilby Goldberg and Maggie Smith. And also she’s a nun and she’s a secret nun. And in this movie, okay, here’s the thing, A really basic thing in this movie is like her being a nun doesn’t matter at all. It makes no difference to the way she teaches the kids that she’s a nun. It’s not even a secret really anymore. Why does she even have to be a nun other than this movie is called Sister Act Two?

Laci (00:47:09):

Well, I mean they set up ish why? It is just easier for paperwork if she’s just already a nun and a teacher. The red tape, Matt. Right. But shouldn’t

Matt (00:47:19):

The movie find some things that specifically relate to being a nun to explore? True.

Jen (00:47:24):

Well, they said she had to either be a nun or a teacher, and she’s neither of those. So because she’s neither of those, the only way they can bring her in is to have her be a nun, because they won’t let her come teach as not a certified teacher, but being a nun. Totally. Okay. At a Catholic school. But if you can, that’s why they have to bring her in as a nun because you can’t be a teacher otherwise. But they don’t know she’s fake. Only the women know she’s fake. The guys don’t figure it out.

Laci (00:47:51):

I know, but there’s nothing to put her to the test way. They don’t even make her do a prayer or anything. I’m like, oh, they’re at a dinner table. It’s going to be another repeat of her having, having,

Matt (00:47:59):

That’s what I’m saying, having to

Laci (00:48:01):

Fake a grace.

Matt (00:48:02):

Shouldn’t she be at a bar dressed in her nuns go or something?

Laci (00:48:05):

She doesn’t get caught in. There’s no test. The kids are not suspicious at all. It’s fine that she’s a nun again, because that’s the movie, but the tension’s gone. So it does lose a little. And then a fucking, another joker comes out of the kitchen and yeah, I end up liking him. He runs around in his chef hat all the time, so stupid. But he’s not just a chef. He’s also got a bit, and it’s that he can only fricking cook sausages. And I’m so disgusted. I want to leave this in honorary right now. This school, I want to flame throw it just based on the sausage, but then they, not one, but two takes at the sausage plate. What are we doing? You guys have time to burn? I don’t need this fucking chef. Alright,

Jen (00:48:50):

Now it’s due

Laci (00:48:50):

To the meat.

Jen (00:48:51):

Well really fast. Oh, the meat she does, she get tested though a little bit in this because when he’s like, oh, so they tell me you came from a prison. And she’s like, oh yeah, I totally hated the prison. He is like, oh, really? They said you loved the prison. And she’s thinking, why didn’t they tell me my backstory? So then she tries to cover it up and he is like, oh, really? Because they said this. And she’s like, well, really, I hated it and I loved it. And so she’s trying to get through her backstory, having no clue what it is and failing miserably. And this guy’s just makes sense. So I mean, they do still have some of those elements in there, but yeah, it’s not the same as her trying to do a prayer in front of the entire nunnery or something like that. But they do still get those moments in, I feel.

Laci (00:49:32):

Yeah, I just feel like they forgot that she’s undercover. I feel like the movie loses track of it.

Matt (00:49:37):

My point was like if the screenwriters changed it so that she’s not a nun, she’s just, Hey, I’m a teacher. Nothing else about the movie, nothing significant would actually change. And if that’s the case, then that then

Laci (00:49:49):

Don’t be a nun.

Matt (00:49:50):

You should probably ask questions about why you’re doing this. It’s not

Laci (00:49:53):

Exactly, it’s the screenwriting thing. And the sausage, just because you’re going to stick a giant sausage in a door later on does not mean we needed the sausage bit to begin with. They’re throwing too much at it when they’ve got all these fricking stars they could be spending time with.

Matt (00:50:12):

Yeah. Jen. Jen, you reminded me of a sort of running gag, not even a gag that happens in the movie that I like, is she goes to talk to Father Maurice and he grills her about her backstory. And you’re like, yeah, why wouldn’t they tell her what her backstory is beforehand? The nuns in this movie now are like, we lived through the first movie. We know you are magical.

Laci (00:50:31):

Right?

Matt (00:50:31):

Whatever you do, it’s going to work out. So we don’t need to tell you your cover story. You’ll just do your thing, your

Laci (00:50:37):

Safe information. Me, Maggie Smith had a touching reunion with you where I said five things and none of them were to prepare you for what we’ve already said about you that were lies.

Matt (00:50:48):

Except that Jay

Jen (00:50:48):

May not be there anymore.

Matt (00:50:50):

I don’t need to put on my seatbelt sister, Mary Clarence is here in the car with me. I don’t need to look both ways before I cross the street with sister, sister Mary

Laci (00:50:59):

Clarence, Mary Magical, Clarence.

Jen (00:51:00):

So Pope loved her. She’ll be fine.

Laci (00:51:02):

She’s been blessed. This is the problem with religious people. They’ve taken that shit too seriously.

Matt (00:51:07):

So they’re like, oh, wait until you meet your class.

Laci (00:51:09):

Your

Matt (00:51:10):

Class of unruly teens, this music class,

Laci (00:51:13):

It’s so dingy in here. Look at the walls.

Matt (00:51:15):

So the class, the kids, let’s meet the kids.

Laci (00:51:20):

Okay, Jen, let’s meet the kids. Oh gosh.

Jen (00:51:23):

Names are so bad for me. That’s one of my biggest,

Laci (00:51:24):

Don’t worry about it, but I’ll tell. Just give me personalities. I’ll

Jen (00:51:27):

Tell Frank, Hey, hey, that’s him. He was like one of my first ever crushes. I

Laci (00:51:35):

Just Oh wow.

Jen (00:51:36):

Walked this man. Okay. There was something about him that I just loved so much.

Laci (00:51:41):

It’s so innocent of you, Jen. I

Jen (00:51:43):

Care. I know. But I loved him. He was perfect. Maybe that’s another reason I think this movie’s perfect, but he’s the stereotypical guy that is into hip hop and wants to be friends with all of them. And he’s trying to do a rap career and they all think he’s a joke, but yet they all love him and are friends with him. Right.

Laci (00:52:03):

It’s a tension. There’s a tension. But mainly they love him. Yes.

Matt (00:52:05):

These kids are a nice group of friends.

Laci (00:52:08):

They’re a nice group

Matt (00:52:09):

Of friends. You think this is a pretty diverse group of kids and they’re all happy to just hang around with each other. And they all, they’re here for each other and they have little jokes they make about each other, but really it’s real sweet. It’s all love. Oh

Jen (00:52:21):

Yeah,

Matt (00:52:21):

Absolutely. It’s all solidarity against that rotten teacher who comes in

Jen (00:52:25):

And

Matt (00:52:25):

Wants to stomp on our fun. We’re telling Yo mama jokes please.

Jen (00:52:31):

And what I love about this is they get every little stereotype in here with all of these kids. The one on the front with the hat and the little sweater on. He’s your brown noser. And he’s all about wanting to learn actually about Whoopi when the rest of the class is just like, shut up man. Right. And then you’ve got off to the right. You see Jennifer Love Hewitt putting her makeup on in class because all she cares about is how pretty she is. You’ve got the one that’s sleeping in the front, he works all day, comes to school, and then he goes back to work. And it’s like they hit all the different known stereotypes of high school students, I feel. And then of course you’ve got the really popular girls that are in the back and they’re the ones that just kind of bust out singing and getting everyone else going and singing as well. So it’s just they all vibe together ultimately, but they each have their own individual personalities that really bring them together.

Laci (00:53:19):

And I totally agree about the main kids, but another flaw of the movie is that there’s about seven more kids than they actually need. And if they were just background, that would be fine. But they give them each one line each. It is so bizarre. But anyway. Alright, so this,

Matt (00:53:40):

Oh, I don’t mind. I

Laci (00:53:41):

Don’t mind. You don’t mind I mind, I mind

Matt (00:53:44):

The ones just from this introduction, like, okay, you’re the ones I have to pay attention to. Obviously Lauryn Hill, you’re the lurking in the background. The

Laci (00:53:52):

You’re the skeptic, but what was going to win you over?

Matt (00:53:54):

She’s going to win you over a me thinks I like that. She describes it. This is a bird class. You fly through this class like a bird.

Laci (00:54:02):

Do you like that?

Matt (00:54:03):

That’s a nice way to put it. I like that. I do

Jen (00:54:05):

Too.

Laci (00:54:05):

I

Jen (00:54:05):

Thought it’s creative. And then they’re all like,

Matt (00:54:09):

Yes. Yes. They make the bird noise to help us understand that’s what this is. We have Wesley James who prefers to go by Amal because he rejects the name that his assimilationist parents gave him. And the rest of the class is rolling their eyes at him. But they still call him a, they respect his choices.

Speaker 4 (00:54:26):

Yes.

Matt (00:54:27):

This is a nice group, I think. But Whoopi’s like, I’m going to reign some hell. I’m going to scratch. Like I’m Robert, Sean Jaws on the chalkboard

Speaker 4 (00:54:35):

And

Matt (00:54:36):

Get their attention. And I’m going to tell them, Hey punk, your mom is so dumb. She got hit by a parked car and that got a legitimate laugh out of me. I was like, that’s great. I’ve never heard that before. She’s not your typical nun. And the kids later are up on the roof doing a group rap.

Laci (00:54:54):

Well group rap. Now this is very true to life in my public school. This happened all the time. And especially in birdie classes. It’s funny. But music was a birdie class at Riverdale because you literally learn the scales and you learn five things. And once you’ve done that, the rest of the time you’re playing spades and hards and doing this rapping and making fun of each other. So this is probably the most movie thing that they do, but it’s also the realest thing.

Matt (00:55:25):

We had very different high school

Laci (00:55:26):

Experiences. I know that I know.

Matt (00:55:28):

Well, I went to Mandeville High on the North Shore.

Laci (00:55:31):

Oh, I old fucking

Matt (00:55:34):

Patagonia bag Lll Bean, not Patagonia. Come on.

Laci (00:55:37):

Okay. And

Matt (00:55:37):

It doesn’t help that whenever you accuse me of having an lll bean, I’m like, everybody had an lll bean.

Laci (00:55:43):

I had to have a mesh school bag because of drugs and weapons. So no, there was no lll bean.

Jen (00:55:49):

What’s an lll bean?

Laci (00:55:51):

It’s a snooty embroidered. It’s not. It’s fucking snooty. You get it out of a catalog only and then you get your initials on Itno.

Jen (00:56:00):

Oh, I had a jansport.

Laci (00:56:02):

Yes, I did too.

Matt (00:56:03):

This was one tier up from Jansport, but

Laci (00:56:06):

It was Jansport was already the name brand. High tier Eastport is the shameful shit you bought from Walmart that you would bring to class unless you got a bougie ass Jan Sport.

Matt (00:56:19):

Alright, well we do send our kids now to the exact same school district. So our kids are that you’re making fun of right now.

Laci (00:56:27):

Except for we’re on the realistic side, not the fucking side.

Matt (00:56:32):

We moved to the bad side of the parish. So there you go.

Jen (00:56:36):

You’re the one all the parents look out for. Yes.

Matt (00:56:41):

And then later that night, not only do these kids hang out in school all day, they go get together and hang out by the store where their friend Richard

Laci (00:56:48):

Works by the store. He’s got to work. That’s real school. He’s got to work. Bring the party to him.

Matt (00:56:53):

I love that. But they also just lived that this is a neighborhood school and they all just live right here. And that’s why they’re invested in the school not closing later when they find out the school’s going to close.

Laci (00:57:02):

Yes, that works for me.

Matt (00:57:04):

Richard Boss is played by Bill Duke in his one scene in the movie.

Jen (00:57:07):

And I love this scene just, it gives them personality, it solidifies their friendship with each other and how much they do like each other. And it cracks me up too. And Whoopi Goldberg comes in and steals the rap and does her own little rap. And it’s just a nice scene for me because it shows that they’re not just random kids in a class. They genuinely care

Laci (00:57:30):

About each other. They hang out in and out

Jen (00:57:32):

School and then it’s again, it’s, it’s Whoopi trying to show them she’s not scared of them, but to still be on their level basically.

Laci (00:57:40):

But she’s also stalking. She’s studying them in the wild.

Jen (00:57:47):

Well, and she’s getting the rhythm out too, so she can jump in with her rhyme. She doesn’t want to look like a fool

Laci (00:57:54):

Saw,

Jen (00:57:54):

Which I don’t know Matt if Laci told you this or not, but all day today, we were sending each other back and forth voice memos of songs from this movie.

Laci (00:58:02):

Yes. He was told and he was not impressed. That’s disappointing.

Matt (00:58:06):

What did you want me to do? What? There’s nothing surprising about this information.

Laci (00:58:11):

Send us a recording of you.

Matt (00:58:14):

I can’t do that. We meet Rita’s mom who’s played by Cheryl Lee Ralph currently on Abbott Elementary, but a legend who screams from the window to come in and do homework. So Rita, the super talented singer, is the one who has the mom who’s like, no, no, no, we work our asses off. That is how we will achieve. Kind of like the Tracy Flick dynamic from election of the mother who’s like, I’m going to be what I could not be. And education is

Laci (00:58:47):

Key. That’s how great for someone who doesn’t notice wardrobe and hair and stuff for that much. That’s a perfect analogy because also always done up to the nines. Always. This mother doesn’t read as dressing beyond her station. She just looks impeccable. Always.

Matt (00:59:05):

And then one more thing I wanted to say about Whoopi. There’s not that much tension about her. Dolores is like, Dolores is cool, but Dolores is cool for a 44-year-old and is maybe going to struggle to come across as cool to the kids. Wait till they see the stuff. I know, but she might learn, oh, I don’t actually know anything about rap, about nineties rap. But no, she doesn’t really struggle. She gets

Laci (00:59:25):

It and she admits to the rap that she knows, which would be the rap of her time. She doesn’t try to be any more current than she’s like, look, we can all fusion together.

Matt (00:59:37):

So it’s the next day in class, she goes in, she’s very scared. The class is all very quiet and paying very close attention. And she’s like, Jesus Christ, what’s happening? And they’re like, good morning, Mrs. Mary Clarence. And she’s like, okay. And they play a very mean prank on

Laci (00:59:51):

Her. It is mean

Matt (00:59:52):

Of putting super glue or whatever on her chair.

Laci (00:59:54):

That’s all one dress. She’s got nothing under that kids.

Matt (00:59:57):

And I thought, let’s just take a look at it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07):

Oh,

Laci (01:00:08):

I thought you were saying we’re going to look at, all right.

Matt (01:00:12):

Whenever I think of a prank on a teacher, I think of the prank from The Simpsons where they’re going to throw the log to Impale and kill their teacher. You thought of this too, Jen, thank God.

Jen (01:00:24):

Oh no. I’m saying I thought you were going to show the video. What happened? I was like, I’m like, oh wait, the Simpsons. But yeah, that break. Absolutely. Now that you say that, I can see the comparison.

Matt (01:00:39):

She’s very funny. She just scoots out out of the classroom and just scooting around in the hall

Laci (01:00:43):

And then the hall’s tilted because it’s a poor bag foundation and she just goes back. That is a good

Matt (01:00:48):

Gag. So cut to her packing her bags and the other nuns come in and they’re like, oh, packing your bags. Who won’t look kindly upon that? Jesus Christ, but no, do whatever you want.

Laci (01:00:58):

I thought say we’re kind of sincere in them saying, we understand this didn’t really go well.

Matt (01:01:03):

Go back to show business. I’m sure the money is better in show

Laci (01:01:06):

Business. All right. There’s guilt given and

Matt (01:01:09):

She looks over, she’s like, Maggie Smith,

Laci (01:01:12):

You’ve done it again. What

Matt (01:01:13):

I think about hate about this place, there’s nothing to pick up and throw. Yeah,

Laci (01:01:17):

It’s all nailed down of these keys.

Jen (01:01:19):

They didn’t get her up a day,

Laci (01:01:22):

But that room is charming as fuck. When they show the room, I’m like, she gets a window and a cranky thing and some sort of stairwell thing. Yeah, I loved it. A little clock stuff in it. I’m like, what a cool, yes.

Matt (01:01:35):

So steam punk, this is where she goes to go give her resignation to the principal, right? No, but she overhears a secret meeting that the school is going to be closed.

Laci (01:01:46):

Oh, I didn’t realize she was going to give it. Right? I thought she was just being a sneaky,

Matt (01:01:49):

Or maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she was going to go, Hey, what do I do about these stinking kids?

Laci (01:01:53):

Right. She was just being a sneaky picky.

Matt (01:01:57):

Yeah. Okay. They’re having a meeting with the money people from the Catholic

Laci (01:02:01):

Church, the money, the crunchy numbers.

Matt (01:02:02):

Yeah. They’re like, the numbers don’t look good on this school. Father Maurice, we’ve crunched the numbers in. The Archbishop says, we got to close

Laci (01:02:09):

This school. Never heard of ’em.

Matt (01:02:11):

And I think it’s like if they close it, the administrator can take early retirement. So it’s not even totally on the level. It’s just like, we want to close the school.

Laci (01:02:18):

Yeah. Wink, wink.

Matt (01:02:19):

I’m done with this. And Whoopi Goldberg’s like this shall not stand. So she goes to the other nuns and she’s like, guys, I’m staying in this school and we’re going to save this school or something. And I’m married Clarence. Now don’t call me to Lawrence anymore. Just forget, for all intents and purposes, I’m a nun now. And they’re like, okay.

Laci (01:02:41):

Oh my God, you misspelled something. Matt. You fucking weirdo.

Matt (01:02:45):

Oh shit. What did

Laci (01:02:45):

I misspelled? Oh, class.

Matt (01:02:47):

Yeah. Sorry.

Laci (01:02:49):

This is embarrassing for you. All right, now we’re back in the class. Oh no. I’m kidding. No one’s going to see it. Matt, I don’t know what you wanted say about this.

Matt (01:02:59):

I didn’t want you to say anything, Laci. You derailed me by criticizing my spelling for a thing. No one’s even going to see idiot. This is just for our own internal use.

Laci (01:03:07):

Fucking moron Speller.

Matt (01:03:09):

Dolores goes into the class and she’s like, alright motherfuckers, I’m not putting up with your shit anymore. We’re going to do things a whole new way. And Lauren Hill gets up and she’s like, but we like the old way. And she’s like, well, if you like the old way, you can just get out. And Rita does get out and she’s like, come on friends. And her friends are like, no, we’re going to stay. For some reason,

Laci (01:03:26):

They’ve never had a teacher actually care. They need to pass this class.

Matt (01:03:30):

Now here’s the thing. Let me make music more fun for you. What do you like to do in music? And some girl’s like, I like to sing. Sing. Okay, so she s thing, and then she’s like, I had no idea you could sing that. Well, you know what I’ll do? I’m going to turn this music class into a choir. And they’re like, but choirs are lame. And she’s like, huh, you think choirs are lame? I’ll show

Laci (01:03:51):

You. Lemme show you something. The hips shit you’ve ever seen in an old folks’ home, all the white ladies you could ever want. Let’s go. And then we get a delightful fucking number where I guess Dolores has been teaching them on the side.

Matt (01:04:06):

Yeah. Oh yeah,

Laci (01:04:07):

Don. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That’s what the world is today.

Jen (01:04:17):

Sing.

Laci (01:04:19):

They have chemistry and charisma for fucking days. It’s like every nun has a very distinct personality that there’s something about using the ladies in a choir formation that the director and music people understand how to highlight the individual people. They should just do this, the whole movie, but with the kids.

Matt (01:04:44):

But this is like, oh yeah, the first movie, right? This is what the first movie was. It was nun singing and now they’re like, Hey, we’re here to, but it works. She gets back on the bus with the kids and she’s like, still think choirs are lame. They’re like, we think choirs are

Laci (01:04:58):

All right. No, they’d still think they’re lame. I think it’s really nice the way they handle it. And then she’s like, alright, well, they’re about to get on the bus and it’s really hard to sing in front of people like you. So show these bitches some respect. And they do, because that’s really what it’s about. That’s what this generation’s about and all young people are about is respect us. We give respect. That’s what kids don’t get is respect.

Jen (01:05:20):

I

Laci (01:05:20):

Think we’re old, so she’s preaching to their choir at this point. All right. You took the kids on an illegal field trip. It didn’t even occur to me that she didn’t get a permission slip. Matt, dammit. Whoopee.

Matt (01:05:34):

Yeah,

Jen (01:05:34):

That’s what she does though.

Matt (01:05:36):

Her boss gives her a talking to, she’s like, this was an unsanctioned field trip. And for now on, there’ll be no field trips sanctioned or otherwise. And also we’re closing in three weeks. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? Why are you even teaching? You’re

Laci (01:05:49):

Polishing the fucking chandelier on the Titanic, the guy, what are you doing?

Matt (01:05:52):

Just reel in the TV cart and press play.

Laci (01:05:55):

Right? Or start taking the Jesus sculptures. You really, really want to keep,

Matt (01:05:59):

Right?

Laci (01:05:59):

Yeah.

Matt (01:06:00):

In the copper wire. Yeah. So the school’s closing very soon. Let’s keep things safe and boring, but the kids are outside and they overhear this and they’re like, oh no, our school, we got to

Laci (01:06:08):

Save our school. We like it here now.

Matt (01:06:11):

So let’s maybe start respecting our teacher and showing more interest in this whole choir thing.

Laci (01:06:18):

In fact, let’s spend our entire day in this one class. We’ll never go to another one,

Matt (01:06:22):

Right? Presumably this music class that’s a 45 minute class once a week,

Laci (01:06:28):

It takes them the entire length that takes to walk to the old music room. That’s just half the class right there.

Matt (01:06:35):

It’s

Laci (01:06:35):

In a different building.

Matt (01:06:36):

I certainly never had a music class that was every day. But even if it was for 50 minutes a day, you’re fixing up. You’re getting free labor out of these kids to fix up this old musical, beautifully restored, this shitty piano, but everybody’s into it. First they sing. Mary Had a Little Lamb, and it gets everybody activated. I like that. One of the girls is like, I don’t know, Mary had a little lamb.

Laci (01:07:01):

The love bone soon will

Laci (01:07:02):

Be taken. Yes.

Jen (01:07:04):

Do you know? And Silent. It’s my favorite.

Laci (01:07:07):

I love that Mary Clarence is like, I just met your soulmate, but I don’t know that actress’s name, but I like her in everything. She’s in

Matt (01:07:14):

Which one?

Laci (01:07:15):

The one that sings the love boat. She’s so right in the middle. Ticky. Yes. She’s got so many ticks and she’s just really spastic, but she’s always that way in every movie. And it is funny. Every time I was surprised, I have no idea who this other really great singer is. This person didn’t make any cultural impression in my life. Tanya, the one that sings with Lauryn Hill at the piano. Although I think of this scene all the time, for some reason, this idea, it’s gorgeous of Lauryn Hill looking at someone and saying, you’ve got a voice that could, where you could really make it. And I’m like, you’re Laury Hill. You’re fucking Laury Hill

Matt (01:07:52):

Makes me crazy. It’s Lauryn Hill saying that to her friend that you, my unknown friend, have a voice. This is a Tanya Blunt place. Tanya. Tanya Blunt is an American actress, best known for Sister Act two. Back in the habit.

Laci (01:08:04):

See, once I realized Lauryn Hill had not M made it with the Fujis yet, then I got less mad at this scene. But in my head, she was already a fucking rock star. Like, oh, you unknown lady. You could really make it me, Lauryn Hill. I could only do this sister Act thing that I’m doing.

Matt (01:08:20):

Oh, Tanya Trotter Blunt is one half of the Grammy nominated trio duo, the War and treaty.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):

Okay,

Matt (01:08:29):

There

Speaker 4 (01:08:30):

You go.

Matt (01:08:30):

So she made it too good for her. But Sister Mary Sheepish, sheepish woman, the one from the first movie who

Laci (01:08:41):

Bangs, I just call her bangs.

Matt (01:08:42):

Yeah. Here’s Rita singing. And she’s like, oh my God, you have a beautiful voice. And it’s a very good scene where Rita’s like, yeah, I know. So what? It doesn’t matter. And she’s like, the nun says, you’re just barely 17. How do you know what you’re going to get to do and not get to do?

Laci (01:08:59):

I thought that was a wise thing to say,

Matt (01:09:00):

But Lauryn Hill says, have you walked around this neighborhood? It’s not exactly the land of opportunity. I might want to sing, but what’s the point?

Laci (01:09:07):

Yeah. It’s also a wise thing to say.

Matt (01:09:09):

Yes, lots of people are good at singing, and I might be the best singer, and what am I going to do with that?

Laci (01:09:16):

How many white guys do I want to fuck to get an opportunity?

Matt (01:09:20):

None. Even the most none. Even the most, even most Mr. Chris privilege and wealthy people still have an infinitesimal

Laci (01:09:28):

Chance of succeed. You have to be a nepo baby. And even then you have to overcome that.

Matt (01:09:32):

Yeah. So this sister is like, I know a magical lady who will help you, Mary Clarence. And she’s like, you got to take her under your wing. So Mary Clarence Dolores gives

Laci (01:09:43):

You ever want to go to Vegas? Rita

Matt (01:09:45):

Gives her the book letters to a young poet with the message. If you wake up in the morning and can think of nothing but writing, then you’re a writer. Ergo, you’re a singer. You’re already a singer. If you love to sing, you find ways to sing. You figure it out.

Laci (01:10:01):

You don’t need anyone to validate what you already have a passion and talent for Jen is a singer, even though Jen doesn’t get paid for it yet. Jen is a singer. She sang at her graduation.

Jen (01:10:14):

I did. This is also when we get just some great background music as well. As I said, I love the background music. They kind hint at it. And then in the back, that’s when they’re doing it. If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention. And then that’s all in the background as they’re trying to figure out and build the choir room. And it’s really motivating in the back, you guys can do this. You just got to step up to it and you’re going to be great.

Laci (01:10:45):

I didn’t realize what a mantra it was. I didn’t realize it was literally a lesson she was teaching on the board. In my head, it was always a song because that’s how I remember it. But yeah, it’s like, no, that’s just my motto.

Matt (01:10:54):

You two sounded very good together, Justin. This is why I

Jen (01:10:58):

Wish each other singing voice memos. Yes.

Matt (01:11:01):

Over the internet connection. It matched up perfectly.

Jen (01:11:05):

Oh

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):

Really?

Matt (01:11:05):

I’m praising the internet connection, if anything. No, no, no. Two lovely voices. I’m recording a song tomorrow.

Laci (01:11:13):

Oh my God, Matt, why has it got to be about you? Fuck. So

Matt (01:11:16):

I felt left out. Shit.

Laci (01:11:17):

Okay, Matt, you

Matt (01:11:18):

Did great

Laci (01:11:19):

Too.

Matt (01:11:20):

Thank you. Thank you.

Laci (01:11:20):

Yeah, but you were good at recording it. Thank you.

Matt (01:11:24):

No, well, I sent, we’re doing our summer miniseries. We haven’t announced what it is yet, but we’re doing our summer miniseries, I might already told you. And last summer, the summer of Spielberg, we need a new theme song. So I wrote a theme song and recorded a demo, and it’s

Laci (01:11:39):

Really good.

Matt (01:11:40):

Sent it to Wade, my musical partner, let’s say

Laci (01:11:43):

Best friend,

Matt (01:11:44):

My collaborator. And he said, yeah, yeah, I think this could be good. So he’s coming over tomorrow. I’ve got

Laci (01:11:52):

Some notes. So Matt’s like, what the fuck are the notes, man? He’s totally nervous. But that weight’s like a virtuoso. He’s master. He’s like the

Matt (01:12:02):

Mery clearance of musicians. He’ll make magic happen.

Laci (01:12:04):

Yes. Anyway, so it’s a compliment. Mattress gets in his feelings about his fucking

Jen (01:12:09):

Music. I look forward to hearing it.

Laci (01:12:12):

Unlike the Summer Spielberg one, which took, I liked this one I immediately loved. Oh, I ended up loving the SPI cut. He’s getting mad. I ended up loving the Spielberg one. Love. Okay, I just took a minute.

Jen (01:12:25):

Well, let’s not forget you have another great theme song too.

Laci (01:12:29):

Yes. You know what? There’s going to be an infomercial of only your songs one day, and I’m going to watch

Matt (01:12:36):

It. I was just hoping that this one would go down as easy as the last song, but it was like, oh yeah, this is good. Let’s just take some time to work on it. I was like,

Laci (01:12:44):

What? No, no, no. Anyway, okay.

Matt (01:12:48):

Anyway, Rita is going back to class now. She’s joining the choir. La la, la la la la la la

Laci (01:12:53):

La. Amal, la la la.

Matt (01:13:00):

Amal

Laci (01:13:00):

Has

Matt (01:13:01):

A wonderful, beautiful little voice, but he is being a little sheepish. He’s not opening up, he’s not projector.

Laci (01:13:07):

Being a little bitch boy. Kind of like bangs.

Matt (01:13:10):

And they have their choir performance in front of the whole school. And here Amal comes into his own, does a solo and hits an impossibly high. Know that even I not totally into this movie watching, I was like, oh shit.

Laci (01:13:21):

Oh fuck yeah. Fuck

Laci (01:13:24):

Jesus.

Laci (01:13:40):

I wonder if he did that in real time. As a shock. I wonder if people in real time were shocked or how many takes it took him. Anyway,

Matt (01:13:47):

I am certain what we are hearing was not recorded right there on set.

Laci (01:13:51):

Oh yeah.

Matt (01:13:53):

Because that’s just very difficult to do.

Laci (01:13:55):

Fine.

Matt (01:13:55):

So Ryan Toby’s the actor who plays Amal. He later went on to be in the music group city.

Laci (01:14:00):

Hi. What would you do? Was at home crying? I know. Bedroom fall because you hungry. Who does the song Lac? I didn’t step on your,

Laci (01:14:10):

I’m celebrating the point that you looked up lost.

Matt (01:14:12):

And as we all know, the best part of that song I lost.

Laci (01:14:15):

I do too.

Matt (01:14:15):

The best part of that song is when the guy is like, oh, I get it. What would you do if your son was at home and then just repeats the

Jen (01:14:21):

Entire thing. I’m alone on the bedroom floor. Because he’s hungry.

Laci (01:14:24):

He’s hungry. And he says, each line is though. He’s understanding it. And the only way to sleep with him. Only sleep. What a man for a little bit of money, daddy Daddy’s gone. So we’re smoking rock now. In and out of lockdown. You don’t got a job

Matt (01:14:38):

Now. I got a job now. It’s somewhere smoking now. Not. So we are, me and my child are smoking rock now.

Laci (01:14:44):

Yes. The child iss. You got to give it Rock

Matt (01:14:48):

The Child. Okay,

Laci (01:14:48):

Fine. No, I’m just kidding.

Matt (01:14:51):

I never thought of it like that.

Laci (01:14:52):

Well, alright.

Matt (01:14:52):

So the thing about this movie and its shoddy screenplay is it’s like, oh, we need some stakes. So we’re not saying that if you win a singing competition that we’re just now telling you about that it’ll save the school, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt. It’s just not like you know that that’s what’s going to happen. But maybe the movie needs to do some work to make you

Laci (01:15:15):

Connect

Matt (01:15:16):

These more. But the nuns are just digging through the old trophy room and they’re like,

Laci (01:15:20):

Our

Matt (01:15:20):

School used to weren’t a lot of singer competitions. How about that? Maybe we could try and do I wonder

Laci (01:15:24):

If they still do these, right. I wonder if there are competitions for things they do

Matt (01:15:28):

And it’s next week and we can enter with $2,000.

Laci (01:15:31):

Oh my God. We’re about to bring it on.

Matt (01:15:34):

So it’s already been threatened.

Laci (01:15:37):

Now what hasn’t?

Matt (01:15:38):

So we have the scene with Lauren Hill and her mother. She, she’s just laying on her bed listening to music, and her mom’s like, what are you doing?

Laci (01:15:46):

What are you fucking listening to? Give me that music. Does it have a rhythm?

Matt (01:15:51):

Is that a musical composition? Yeah. No, your father was eaten by a radioactive choir. I told you. Never say that word in the house choir. I forbid you to join the choir. So Rita has to go tell Dolores, I cannot join the choir. I cannot go on the field trip. On the trip to the competition in la. And Whoopi Goldberg is like, well, I’ll go talk some sense into your mother. And her mother does the opposite, is the first person who’s not won over by the sister Mary Clarence Magic.

Laci (01:16:18):

Yes, you’re right. Absolutely. Can’t use your magic on the lady. That’s already magical.

Matt (01:16:25):

Now the sisters have to find $2,000 Whoopi Goldberg, despite being like on a platinum selling recording artist and having a VA residency is like all nothing. So they have to do a fundraiser where they sing some songs and go, right. Can’t sell into a karaoke machine.

Laci (01:16:40):

Can’t you sell some stuff from your apartment

Matt (01:16:43):

Or just, Hey, Dolores, whatever’s having a concert.

Laci (01:16:45):

Right? Oh God, you’re so smart, Matt. This is why we’re in marketing, baby.

Matt (01:16:50):

But guys, if you believe it, they raised the $2,000.

Laci (01:16:54):

They did. They are just shy.

Jen (01:16:56):

Yeah, that part is one of the only parts that ever bothered me in this movie because they’re like, we need over $2,000. And then they added it all up and they’re like, we made $1,700. We’re going competition. Oh, I thought it

Laci (01:17:08):

19. No, it’s under.

Jen (01:17:11):

Yeah. Seventeen’s under. And so, but it’s less under than that. So I’m like, no, you said you need an over 2000, but okay,

Laci (01:17:21):

They’ve got, they could take it out of the fucking

Matt (01:17:24):

Thingy. Yeah, just make it over 2000. Wow. What a triumph. We made $2,015 because they

Laci (01:17:31):

Have to be the

Matt (01:17:31):

Underdog. We’re nice cream tonight. They get on the bus to go to LA and Rita’s like say, wait up bus driver here. I’m getting on. And Maggie Smith is like, do you have your permission slip Mr. Potter? And she’s like, why? Yes, I do. It’s right here.

Laci (01:17:45):

Don’t look at it closely. I

Matt (01:17:47):

Love, we did see her forge her mother’s signature. We

Laci (01:17:49):

Did. But I love that she left a note for her mom because she’s not a bad kid and she really wants to do this. Not because she wants to rebel, but because this is very important to her. But my favorite thing is that her mom reads the first sentence, then sits down to read one more sentence. The letter’s over.

Matt (01:18:10):

It’s two sentence letter. We’re

Jen (01:18:12):

Looking at it right now, writing on this letter. It’s a short letter.

Laci (01:18:16):

Half of it is Love your daughter, Rita Watkins original. You know what it says? Get up.

Matt (01:18:24):

And now there’s this thing with the fathers. The archdiocese has discovered who Dolores truly is. She’s a singing hanus in Vegas, a harlot. We got to stop her for some reason. So they get in their own van to go beat the kids to LA

Laci (01:18:40):

And they drive crazy.

Matt (01:18:41):

Yeah,

Laci (01:18:42):

We don’t need another bit. We don’t need it. Just

Matt (01:18:45):

More stuff. So yeah, the contest itself. Let’s hear about the contest.

Laci (01:18:49):

Well, apparently this is the most lax fucking stage direction kind of place ever. They are allowed to stand in the wing the entire

Matt (01:18:59):

Fucking time. They just stayed there the whole time.

Laci (01:19:00):

They’re clogging up curtain left. I’m just saying they’re like

Jen (01:19:05):

On both ends.

Laci (01:19:07):

Right? So we get to see a little bit of every kind of choir that you could maybe think of. And I always have been taken aback by the fact that the one that’s that’s won last three years in a row, I’m like, all I did was sing a choir song. They had no innovation. Every other example they showed at least was innovative in that it was a quartet and that they had dance moves. They had some sort of spin on it. All they did was this militaristic. They’re just very rehearsed. Wow.

Jen (01:19:43):

What drives me crazy? This is another one of those things that probably no one else cares about. See, the little things bother me once in a while. And then everything else I’m like, I don’t care. But it’s that. So we know that this other big intimidating group sings the same song. Right. But at the same time, nothing like it. They’re not because the guy’s like, and this choir also singing Joyful. Joyful. I’m like, no, sir. The first choir being Ode to Joy. They did not sing. Joyful. Joyful. They sang a different song. The lyrics might be similar, but Joyful. Joyful and Ode to Joy are not the same song. So when he comes out being also singing

Laci (01:20:18):

Shabby ass,

Jen (01:20:20):

No, no, no. Wrong.

Laci (01:20:23):

No. And I also like that they pretend that they’re going to wear robes because they didn’t all dress in color coordinated street clothes. That didn’t happen. But they just, I feel so uncomfortable in this. And at the last minute, Dolores is like, take ’em off. I want y’all to be comfortable. Were they going be doing back flips in the fucking robe? Where are they going to be doing kick open side to side in the fucking robe? Lauren’s clogs would’ve looked ridiculous under that robe.

Matt (01:20:53):

The other schools they’re They’re richer. They’re whiter. I think

Laci (01:20:58):

They had a cup. I don’t know. I thought they had a kind of diverse, there’s a mix. Yeah, I thought so.

Matt (01:21:03):

But I think if I remember correctly, they’re all from southern California when they get introduced and then this school from San Francisco, and you can hear people spitting on the ground. San Francisco P,

Laci (01:21:14):

That’s by that prison.

Matt (01:21:17):

It’s the rock. It’s the rock. They need one more obstacle. And the kids are like, we don’t want to go out. We’re scared. And Whoopi’s like, we’re the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor. Were you scared then?

Laci (01:21:29):

Yes.

Matt (01:21:31):

Because Well, I do like what she says. If you want to be somebody, you got to wake up because listen, if every time something scary comes up and you turn around and run, you’ll be running for the rest of your life.

Laci (01:21:45):

Whoopi nose.

Matt (01:21:46):

Yes. They do a big number in their regular clothes. Take off their robes. Guys look like 1993 kids, and they sure do

Laci (01:21:56):

Look like the most giant toddlers, gin’s crush with your fucking overalls looking like Tommy Pickles. He looks fucking crazy.

Matt (01:22:05):

They do a medley of some songs

Laci (01:22:08):

That are great fucking iconic, best song

Matt (01:22:12):

Ever. A lot of Christian stuff. It’s very, again, we’re Catholic podcasts, so we really like this. We

Laci (01:22:19):

Love a papacy.

Matt (01:22:21):

We love a papacy. I want to paper the whole

Laci (01:22:24):

Town with papacy

Matt (01:22:26):

When there’s not a papacy. I’m like, come on. What are you doing? The scariest thing about the movie Conclave. No papacy for the time being. See the whole fucking time. And again, this here, I mean, this is where Lauryn Hill and also Amal, the what would you do singer really shine and just good on Whoopi for totally seeding the spotlight. She is there present on stage. She is doing stuff, but she is not like center focused.

Laci (01:22:52):

She’s in fact wearing black and the rest of them are super colorful.

Jen (01:22:55):

It’s

Laci (01:22:56):

The way a photographer has to get into the middle of everything to get all the shots, but you have to wear black. You’re not supposed to ever steal focus as a photographer, which is why it didn’t last as a photographer.

Jen (01:23:06):

And don’t forget, I hope I’m not stealing some thunder, but while this is all going on, the guys that came to stop this saw the kids and realized how much they’ve grown and how much they really want to do this. And then they decide to lock the mean old grumpy man in the closet. So he can’t stop them per performing. And they’re watching these kids perform and it’s bringing tears to their eyes because they’re so proud of them and how much they’ve grown and they don’t care anymore. That Whoopi is this harlet from Vegas. They just want these kids to shine and be amazing. And it’s like it’s finally all coming together and that these kids can just truly be appreciated for who they are and the hard work that they’ve had.

Matt (01:23:43):

Right? As all of that stuff is the stuff I don’t buy in the movie. I don’t buy these priests all being like, oh, why?

Laci (01:23:52):

I guarantee you, whenever they all saw that old ass crotchety man in the dressing room, and they all went up to ’em and we’re like, Hey, I know your name. Thanks for coming. His little heart melted. He’s never ever been greeted like that from the cool kids at school.

Jen (01:24:10):

He’s

Laci (01:24:10):

Like, Nope, you’re right. Crimes are good. Fraud is awesome. I’m going to go get a sausage kidnap a man for a little while. You guys, do you? Yeah, I know he doesn’t. He’s not part of the

Jen (01:24:21):

Kidnapping. I love that little thing. It’s like his heart melted and he became a fan in

Laci (01:24:25):

That moment.

Jen (01:24:26):

And then he has that moment with Maggie Smith where she’s like, she’s not exactly the nun. You think she is? And he’s like, I know.

Laci (01:24:31):

And then they try to fuck each other. Right? Because then yeah, that’s happens. Because then he’s like, you can fucking betray me anytime you want. There is a little moment.

Jen (01:24:42):

There is a little wiggle there, but I still think they’re innocent Nun and guys

Laci (01:24:48):

And none in sausage.

Matt (01:24:50):

No. They fucked before. That’s how I read it. They fucked before and they do it again. Yes.

Laci (01:24:53):

They used to be artists and they used to get down in art ass

Matt (01:24:58):

Movies. She’s fucked as a nun. She definitely has.

Laci (01:25:00):

She’s fucked as a nun.

Matt (01:25:02):

Yeah, you can see it. It’s in her performance.

Laci (01:25:03):

You lift up the habit, you get down to business.

Matt (01:25:05):

Was

Jen (01:25:06):

That Cis Rock 1.5?

Matt (01:25:09):

Yeah. It’s divers tofu two rough at theaters

Laci (01:25:13):

Back under my habit.

Matt (01:25:15):

They win. They win the contest.

Laci (01:25:17):

Oh, they win. Yay. Yay.

Matt (01:25:19):

And the archdiocese is pleases punch. And they’re like, no school closure. Yay. Don’t close the school. I do like that the mean administrator. They’re like, and this is the genius who is behind all of it. He’s like, I was, oh, I mean they worked in the first, I guess

Laci (01:25:31):

I was, that’s how they got Maggie Smith roped into stuff in the first movie is they said it was all her idea.

Matt (01:25:38):

And the kids find out Moby Goldberg’s not really a nun. And they’re like, you’re a Vegas showgirl. And she’s like, no, I’m a Vegas liner freeze frame ending.

Jen (01:25:49):

One of the things that I love is when they go to those three original nuns that we talk about where the guys go to them and she’s like, did you know that she’s not really a nun? And the one that I just love so much that I can’t ever remember her name, but Bangs as you were calling her, she just goes trying to act surprised, but it’s so over the top and fake. But I just love it. She draws my attention every time at that scene because she’s literally just like,

Laci (01:26:19):

She’s a really good comedic actress though. You know? Just remind me of something. Whenever in the mely thing that they do to fundraise, Wilby Goldberg has her part where she’s pretending to be James Brown where she pretends to fall on the ground and then she needs to rope. And the whole time Mary Bangs is like, oh, you fell down. Oh no, she’s acting along with her. It is really fucking funny. I would watch that scene again just to see her be like, oh, she’s okay. Oh, anyway.

Matt (01:26:48):

And the old nun, she’s funny. In the first movie, she has my favorite line for the first movie. We can’t turn her over to the FA sister. That’s the end of the movie. Sister Crac two back in the habit.

Jen (01:27:00):

And are you aware that supposedly the third one finally got Green lits?

Matt (01:27:05):

No. There’s been talk of a sequel for I think like 10

Laci (01:27:09):

Years as long as Whoopi’s in it. And I love that they had that little reunion thing that they did. So if all those kids are back, I’m back.

Jen (01:27:16):

Right. Because of the reunion. It came out. They pushed it, they’re going to push it and it’s going to be, I think a Disney plus movie.

Laci (01:27:24):

Oh, okay. That gave me Goosebumps.

Jen (01:27:26):

A sister. Now I should have checked before I said this, but

Laci (01:27:29):

No, Jen, you should never check.

Jen (01:27:31):

That was a couple months ago. Okay. But yeah, I mean that person that I would watch it, I don’t care. So if they make 12 of them all month, this

Laci (01:27:41):

Is not the bar.

Matt (01:27:42):

Yeah, you’re not the bar.

Laci (01:27:43):

You watch a lot what Jim watch. It is not the fucking bar. You watch trash Think that’s

Jen (01:27:47):

A great bar. No,

Laci (01:27:49):

It’s the lowest of

Matt (01:27:49):

All. But it’s the Jim Carey quote that he said when we did our Truman Show episode. He said like, people were telling me forever, dude, you got to do a Dumb and Dumber two. And then he is like, and we did it and no one cared. You only care about the idea of that we’re going to do it. Yeah. I feel like a sister Act three on Disney Plus would just come and go and no one would be like, people would be like,

Laci (01:28:07):

There’s Sister. I’m still going to watch it though. That’s valid. It’s going to have good music numbers. And if they bring back the original Dead director, there you go.

Matt (01:28:15):

Oh, they did

Laci (01:28:16):

That. I’m

Matt (01:28:16):

There. They have

Laci (01:28:17):

Ai. They have ai. You bring back his head. Hr,

Matt (01:28:21):

I would not be there

Jen (01:28:21):

For that. No, don’t say that. Sister Act three, the haunted version.

Laci (01:28:24):

Yes, yes, yes. It’s Ghost With Sister Act mixed together.

Jen (01:28:28):

It’s a bunch of dead Patrick Twe ghost and they have to learn how to sing. Yes. I don’t know what the third one would be, the premise, but I just think the first two did so well in their own ways that I just don’t know how the third one could contribute to it.

Laci (01:28:45):

I think Matt’s right, they have to go sideways again.

Jen (01:28:48):

I would still see it.

Laci (01:28:50):

Yes. We’re That’s one where it’s not so on a pedestal for me that they can’t be touched. I could see Whoopi’s got endless steam, and when something’s so contingent on the comedic brilliance of one person, I think it’s easier when you think of Beetlejuice, you need everyone to be on their A game. It’s not just on Michael Keaton. I was not looking forward to that. But this, I can see Whoopi in the mix of anything, including the View.

Matt (01:29:22):

Okay. But this is what I was saying, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has been out for a year. We own it on streaming. I have

Laci (01:29:27):

Not

Matt (01:29:28):

Seen it. Beetlejuice one is one of your favorite movies. Yes. Have we ever watched it? You’re like,

Laci (01:29:31):

I resented that. I was not excited about it. I had Beetlejuice stuff that was cool, and now I have Beetlejuice stuff that looks like everybody else fucking has it. I got my mug way before the goddamn movie came out. I just hated it. Made my old stuff not cool anymore.

Matt (01:29:47):

Who are you talking about?

Laci (01:29:49):

Everyone who is saying you’re not cool. I don’t talk to them.

Jen (01:29:54):

I think I don’t.

Laci (01:29:55):

Thank you, James.

Jen (01:29:56):

But apparently my bar is

Matt (01:29:57):

Low only for movies. Only for, it’s not for people. I’m not a movie. Have you watched Hocus Pocus two Laci? No. No, because you’ll never watch this. Track

Laci (01:30:05):

Three. Oh, you’re an idiot.

Matt (01:30:07):

I don’t know why I’m fighting this fight.

Laci (01:30:08):

Right. This is a movie about good songs. There’s no way the third one’s going to get that wrong. And I will watch any garbage that is interspersed with amazing songs.

Matt (01:30:18):

I would just say this.

Laci (01:30:19):

No,

Matt (01:30:20):

How about this? Whoopi Goldberg? Just be in movies again. You’re great.

Laci (01:30:23):

Oh, that would be nice.

Matt (01:30:23):

She was so great in Star Trek, Picard, and she doesn’t act that much anymore, but she’s fucking Got it. She was wonderful. As GYN in the Star Trek Picard series. That’s a good point. Be in stuffed. Stuffed. What are our final thoughts on star ratings on this direct back in, oh, okay. I can go to bed.

Jen (01:30:52):

Jen.

Laci (01:30:52):

Jen,

Matt (01:30:53):

We’re going to go with you first. Letterbox rolls out a five.

Jen (01:30:55):

I figured. Well, obviously this is a five for me. Jesus crush. I mean, I’m aware my ratings sometimes are a little biased and it is a load barrier.

Laci (01:31:06):

Well wait. They have to be’s how that works.

Jen (01:31:11):

But I love this movie. Like I said, it makes me smile. It makes me happy. And every single time I watch it, I’m filled with just as much joy as when I watch it the first time.

Laci (01:31:19):

Joyful.

Jen (01:31:19):

Joyful. This will always be amazing. You’re done with GOD. Yeah. You know me. Yeah. You know me. Who’s done with GOD you way less than me, everybody. Right. So

Laci (01:31:30):

It’s just joyful titties, all Jens abounding.

Matt (01:31:35):

I just really liked the first movie, and this is not, I didn’t get the same joy out of the second movie. The things that people seem to love about the movie I like too. I like the kids. I like the singing. I think that that Bill Duke does for a non-musical director. He does a really good job directing the musical sequences for a guy who’s mainly an action director.

Laci (01:31:53):

That’s true.

Matt (01:31:54):

Even that opening, you get the joy of the live performance. Yeah. Yeah. The opening is so much fun. This is just, I don’t often accuse, I think it’s sort of lazy to say this is just a movie with a bad script, but I really think this is just a movie with a bad script.

Laci (01:32:09):

Yes. It didn’t give enough to do to really talented people.

Matt (01:32:16):

Our guest on the last episode, Craig, really opened my eyes to this idea. Stop giving half stars on Letterbox

Jen (01:32:21):

Sick. I hate half stars, but I do it once in a

Matt (01:32:23):

While. It’s really, I lean on them hard. It’s really helped me. It’s eased my mind. So I’m just going to say three stars. See it. I recommend it, but I don’t love it.

Laci (01:32:33):

I also want to give it three stars. I do love it. I don’t like it. And I am not angry. I’m just disappointed. It felt like I love what it did, Jen.

Jen (01:32:47):

I would rather be angry than disappointed.

Laci (01:32:50):

Just I see what wasn’t totally developed and I miss what could have been. But I am appreciative. There’s two because one wasn’t enough. It’s my little half star, so fuck y’all. It’s the half star of a movie, but it’s getting three. Yeah. It still makes me happy.

Matt (01:33:08):

See Crac two is what we’re saying. Jen, please plug

Laci (01:33:12):

Jen, do your hair like that again. Look how cute your hair is in that picture.

Jen (01:33:16):

That’s my goal. But the problem is, is I can’t physically get it done right now because I

Laci (01:33:21):

Can’t. What? Because it hurt. Oh, right.

Jen (01:33:24):

That’s why my hair is so long. I’ve never had my hair long. I’ve never been this long in my life. That’s my usual length, honestly. Or maybe a little bit longer. It’s so

Laci (01:33:33):

Cute.

Jen (01:33:34):

But that’s normal. And one day I hope to do it

Laci (01:33:37):

Again one day. I didn’t mean to bring up a sore topic. No, it doesn’t bother

Jen (01:33:41):

Me. I’m hoping, maybe it might happen in May. We’ll see if I’ve gotten there yet. So maybe sooner than later, who knows. But yeah, Jen walks into walls. I’m on TikTok, I’m on YouTube. I even do Instagram right now. They’re all the same videos. But I mean, still follow me on all three because you just love me. But I do a lot of movie reviews a lot. I try and post today a lot. So every once in a while I’ll do a TV series when I just absolutely love it. Like the Pit, for instance. And then I also go on cruises throughout the year. So sometimes she gets some cruise. Cruise stuff in there too. Cruise. Cruise. So

Laci (01:34:20):

I know we want to go on a cruise so bad.

Jen (01:34:22):

Well tell me when. And I’m there.

Laci (01:34:25):

Gene comes with it. No, that’s absolutely. I feel a double cruise coming on. Tell me. Talk to who? Jen.

Matt (01:34:33):

The obstacle of getting the babysitter

Jen (01:34:36):

Instead of my trip to Louisiana. We’ll just move it to a cruise ship. Fuck. Just we boat.

Matt (01:34:44):

She

Jen (01:34:44):

Loves a boat. Boat. Everybody, please. I love it. Sorry.

Matt (01:34:49):

Follow Jen links to her social media channels in the description. Jen walks into Let her in numeral two,

Speaker 4 (01:34:57):

Two

Matt (01:34:58):

Walls. And it’s been a delight having you on the program. And please come back in the

Jen (01:35:03):

Future. I would love to. I have so much fun with you guys. Hopefully Matt enjoys his time with me and Laci. I can already

Laci (01:35:12):

Tell. He did. I can already tell. He did. I told you I’d be honest and I can tell he did. Yeah. No. Plus I have a mood ring. I slipped onto his toe. He doesn’t know it. And it’s been tweak the whole time. Oh, I

Jen (01:35:22):

Love it.

Matt (01:35:22):

Perfect.

Laci (01:35:23):

That’s right.

Matt (01:35:25):

What do we have coming up on the show?

Laci (01:35:26):

I don’t fucking know. No, sorry. Death proof.

Matt (01:35:29):

Next week on the show, episode 1 58. We’re covering Quentin Tarantino’s death Proof with,

Laci (01:35:33):

I wish it was fucking

Matt (01:35:35):

Time.

Laci (01:35:35):

Quentin Tarantino.

Matt (01:35:37):

Yes. This is Quentin Tarantino.

Laci (01:35:38):

Oh, we’re only doing his

Matt (01:35:39):

Half dumb. Yeah, that’s why it’s called We’re Not Doing GR House’s. Not gr House.

Laci (01:35:42):

Hate you. So fucking ironically. I’ve never seen this. This one’s good. I remember liking it.

Matt (01:35:49):

I haven’t seen it since. Theaters.

Laci (01:35:51):

I, I haven’t either.

Matt (01:35:52):

And so I’ve only seen the 90 Minute. I think it’s a shorter version. That was in the Grindhouse. Cut. Anyway, look forward to revisiting this movie J. Proof with our friend Cinema Chris. Cinema Chris, tell everybody that you know that load be Beams will change their lives. It’ll

Laci (01:36:07):

Open their soul and open doors.

Matt (01:36:11):

Oh my God. You’re going to go so high

Laci (01:36:13):

To the Papa

Matt (01:36:13):

Two. You know, really

Laci (01:36:15):

The changed my life. We’re on Better On Sliding into dms.

Matt (01:36:20):

We’re on YouTube Load Bearing Memes Pod. I’m on letterbox at Mad Stokes nine. Laci is on letterbox at Load Bearing. Laci. Let’s see if Laci cannot talk over me while I do

Laci (01:36:29):

This. I never talk.

Matt (01:36:31):

My band is Rural Route Nine. And we do the music for this show, including the song you’re hearing now. Our album is the Joy of Averages. Get it wherever you get music. That’s all. I’m done. I hat this. I hate you. I quit this podcast.